After a six-year hunt, the breakthrough in finding Mark Perry, one of Australia's most wanted men, came out of a routine tip-off within the past week.

Police were told that the man wanted in connection with the murder of ''vampire'' gigolo Shane Chartres-Abbott – and who was charged on Wednesday night with one count of murder – had been living quietly and working in Perth for several months.

Police had previously been told the 45-year-old was in Queensland or living in a village in Thailand, but the leads turned out to be dead ends.

Mark Perry.

The latest information was sent to Perth police, who identified a man fitting Perry's description. It is understood surveillance police identified him from photos sent to them by Victorian detectives from the Briars taskforce.

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On Tuesday evening Perry was arrested at a factory in the Perth suburb of Morley by heavily armed members of the tactical response group. Perry did not resist and immediately admitted he was the wanted man. WA police said he did not seem surprised by the raid. ''If anything, he was relieved,'' one policeman said.

Detectives from the Briars taskforce flew to Perth to extradite Perry as soon as WA police confirmed the arrest. He will return to Melbourne on Thursday and appear in court on Friday.

Shane Chartres-Abbott. Photo: Andrew De La Rue

Perry is the former boyfriend of a woman whom Chartres-Abbott allegedly raped some time before his death in 2003.

Mr Chartres-Abbott was on his way to the County Court with his girlfriend and her father when they were approached by two men outside his Reservoir home on June 4, 2003. One man assaulted his girlfriend and father while the other man produced a gun and shot Mr Chartres-Abbott.

Evangelos Goussis and a co-accused, who cannot be identified but was not one of the men present when Mr Chartres-Abbott was shot, will stand trial over Mr Chartres-Abbott's murder. Both men pleaded not guilty at a committal hearing in March, claiming that a key witness – a prisoner guilty of three murders who admitted to being the shooter of Mr Chartres-Abbott – could not be believed.

Perry was no longer going out with the woman whom Mr Chartres-Abbott allegedly raped in August 2002, but was still friends with her. When she was brutally and repeatedly sexually assaulted he was said to have been angry, devastated and guilt-ridden.

The woman was found by staff at the South Yarra Saville Hotel covered in bruises and bite marks. She had been raped and part of her tongue was missing.

Mr Chartres-Abbott was arrested shortly after the attack with the victim's blood on his pants and her phone in his bag. With the forensic evidence, medical reports, the victim's testimony and witness statements, it should have been a straightforward case.

Peter Lalor. Photo: Craig Sillitoe

But Mr Chartres-Abbott was anything but straightforward. His defence was bizarre, headline-grabbing and just plain stupid.

He said that he was the real victim and that he had been forced to flee the hotel when the woman told him that vice bosses planned to use him in a snuff movie, which would end with his death.

The woman also told police that Mr Chartres-Abbott had dropped into conversation that he was a 200-year-old vampire.

David Waters. Photo: Justin McManus

Perry allegedly told friends that if he had still been with the victim the attack would never have happened — and he vowed massive payback against the offender.

It was alleged that Perry, angered by the rape, asked Goussis' co-accused – an old friend from the area in which he grew up – if he could find a hitman to kill Mr Chartres-Abbott.

The friend then approached the Crown witness, a hardened criminal who played a pivotal role in Melbourne's gangland wars. The witness then allegedly teamed up with Goussis and murdered Mr Chartres-Abbott.

Much later, the killer was arrested by the Purana gangland taskforce and charged with two murders unrelated to the Chartres-Abbott killing. While in prison, to the surprise of police, he confessed to the Chartres-Abbott murder and implicated Goussis and the other man set to stand trial.

In April 2007, Victoria Police set up a taskforce called Briars to investigate the jailed hitman's claims.In August 2007, Goussis' co-accused allegedly met Perry in a Gold Coast cafe and told him that he had been questioned secretly by the Australian Crime Commission over the Chartres-Abbott murder.

The man allegedly assured Perry that he would remain staunch and would rather go to jail than talk to police. It was then that Perry disappeared.

The witness has also implicated in the crime two former policemen, who have strongly denied any involvement.In his statements the witness said he regularly drank with a group of serving and former police and alleged one of them had provided him with a current address for Mr Chartres-Abbott.

He also claimed the policeman helped provide him with a false alibi for the time of the murder. The policeman, he alleged, was former detective Peter ''Stash'' Lalor.

What investigators from Briars were able to confirm was that six hours after the murder the killer presented himself at the Prahran police station to surrender over arrest warrants for traffic offences. The policeman on duty was Peter Lalor.

The killer arrived at 3pm — just as Mr Lalor was due to start the afternoon shift. The experienced policeman filled out the paperwork with the right date but mysteriously left the time blank. It could have been an administrative oversight, although the killer claims it was designed as an escape clause. If interviewed, the killer could claim he was at the Prahran station at the time of the murder.

The Crown witness has also claimed that another former detective and friend of Mr Lalor, David ''Docket'' Waters, was given the murder weapon soon after the killing for ''safekeeping'' before handing it back several days later.

The witness alleged in a statement that when asked why he gave Mr Waters the .357 Magnum revolver, that it had been said during drinking sessions that ''Dave Waters knew too much to begin with''.

''... and this was part of my reasoning, that if I gave him the gun, it was an insurance policy to buy his silence, by virtue of him being involved in the crime himself,'' he said.

The case's chief investigator told the Melbourne Magistrates Court at the committal hearing in March that there was insufficient evidence to charge Mr Lalor and Mr Waters.

Detective Sergeant Steven Cuxson said the investigation was continuing and if sufficient evidence was found, Mr Waters and Mr Lalor could be charged.